Proposed Project Description Our learning community will implement a 1-week collaborative project called "Celebrate! Holidays and Festivals Around the World", where students will work on a collaborative email-based project that allows them to explore and share different celebrations and traditions related to holidays from their own countries and those across the globe. We are using the following website as our guide because it can be adapted for many different grade levels. Celebrate! Holidays and Festivals Around the World
How will you improve learner performance by engaging learners in authentic experiences?
Students will have the opportunity to engage in discussions with learners from other countries. Each student will be able to be an expert in their culture and traditions and can bring this information to the project while receiving information from others. This is an authentic experience that will engage the learners and make them want to explore and discover new information, even as they are motivated to learn more about their own cultures and traditions so they can collaboratively share this with others.
How will you facilitate learning through constructivist, collaborative learning experiences? The classroom teachers will facilitate learning through constructivist, collaborative learning experiences by insuring the students bring prior knowledge of their own customs and traditions for the holidays to the table as they learn from their epals about different holidays and traditions. They will have activities to complete, questions to answer, and research to complete. With these particular activities, students will pull in outside sources form their community as well as the information from class. Students will also work collaboratively and cooperatively to find information needed to get their wikis done within their communities. While working on wikis, students will have the opportunity to communicate while working on their Google Docs activity. With the use of Google Docs, students can work together from their perspective locations to make sure that everything is getting done correctly. With this collaboration, students are learning about other areas of the world, how other classrooms do things differently, and how to communicate and socialize with other learners while developing skills to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas.
How will you create sound instructional materials and learning environments that are based on solid research and learning theory? With the use of the Internet, students have access to resources that will provide information for all of the different celebrations around the world. They will use prior knowledge and what they have discovered from the resources have built upon over the year. There will be several class discussions and the resources will be selected collaboratively by the learning community teachers facilitating the activity to make sure the standards are similar for particular grade levels involved.
How will you facilitate the use of innovations through the diffusion and integration of new technologies and technological experiences for your learners? Students will work in collaborative groups to find the answers to the essential questions of the project. Essential Questions
Why do people celebrate?
What special traditions and rituals surround holidays and festivals?
What holidays and festivals are important parts of your culture?
What holidays and festivals are important in other cultures?
What do celebrations around the world have in common?
What is a symbol? How are symbols used in celebrations and holidays?
Students will have the opportunity to find their research using various websites, their ePals, and resources available in the school or community library. The teachers will be available to facilitate and guide the student learning. If groups are having difficulty the teacher will assist them as needed. Groups will be able to share new technologies or research they find that may benefit others in the classroom.
How will you most effectively manage this process? The best way to manage this process is to have a group check in when working on the project. Each group will have a check list to keep them on track, but the teacher will also check in with groups. By asking groups where they are at in the process and monitoring their progress the groups should not fall behind. This will also allow the teacher to know what groups might be having trouble researching or producing the final project early on. What ethical considerations will you make to ensure sound decisions are made? Students at this age level often do not realize the cultural differences around the world. Having discussions about possible cultural differences before beginning the project will remind students to be aware that there will be things other children do differently. Some of the differences may include: religious beliefs, family traditions, holiday traditions, language responses, and the way someone acts socially. What processes and resources will you include? The following are website resources that students will be able to view to learn more about other cultures around the worlds:
General Holiday Websites
World Almanac for Kids: Birthdays and Holidays (short articles on many holidays)
Describe the learning environment and population that will be engaged in your project: Audience - Various grade levels taught by the learning community Learner characteristics: grade level, number of students - 3rd grade - 6th grade age range, 45 students; 3 7th grade classes with 30 per class Anticipated entry-level skills of audience Students should demonstrates appropriate ability to use the internet and its resources, ability to use email, basic keyboard skills, and knowledge the school's acceptable use policy.
School environment The school environment will consist of Middle school level students/classes
Support for project by community, parents, or administrators -
Parents can help students with pictures or descriptions of their culture and holiday traditions. The administrators will be aware of the classroom project and work with other schools/countries. If available in the community the district media person can feature the student projects for local news.
Task 5 Project Statement:
Proposed Project Description
Our learning community will implement a 1-week collaborative project called "Celebrate! Holidays and Festivals Around the World", where students will work on a collaborative email-based project that allows them to explore and share different celebrations and traditions related to holidays from their own countries and those across the globe. We are using the following website as our guide because it can be adapted for many different grade levels.
Celebrate! Holidays and Festivals Around the World
How will you improve learner performance by engaging learners in authentic experiences?
Students will have the opportunity to engage in discussions with learners from other countries. Each student will be able to be an expert in their culture and traditions and can bring this information to the project while receiving information from others. This is an authentic experience that will engage the learners and make them want to explore and discover new information, even as they are motivated to learn more about their own cultures and traditions so they can collaboratively share this with others.How will you facilitate learning through constructivist, collaborative learning experiences?
The classroom teachers will facilitate learning through constructivist, collaborative learning experiences by insuring the students bring prior knowledge of their own customs and traditions for the holidays to the table as they learn from their epals about different holidays and traditions. They will have activities to complete, questions to answer, and research to complete. With these particular activities, students will pull in outside sources form their community as well as the information from class. Students will also work collaboratively and cooperatively to find information needed to get their wikis done within their communities. While working on wikis, students will have the opportunity to communicate while working on their Google Docs activity. With the use of Google Docs, students can work together from their perspective locations to make sure that everything is getting done correctly. With this collaboration, students are learning about other areas of the world, how other classrooms do things differently, and how to communicate and socialize with other learners while developing skills to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas.
How will you create sound instructional materials and learning environments that are based on solid research and learning theory?
With the use of the Internet, students have access to resources that will provide information for all of the different celebrations around the world. They will use prior knowledge and what they have discovered from the resources have built upon over the year. There will be several class discussions and the resources will be selected collaboratively by the learning community teachers facilitating the activity to make sure the standards are similar for particular grade levels involved.
How will you facilitate the use of innovations through the diffusion and integration of new technologies and technological experiences for your learners? Students will work in collaborative groups to find the answers to the essential questions of the project.
Essential Questions
Students will have the opportunity to find their research using various websites, their ePals, and resources available in the school or community library. The teachers will be available to facilitate and guide the student learning. If groups are having difficulty the teacher will assist them as needed. Groups will be able to share new technologies or research they find that may benefit others in the classroom.
How will you most effectively manage this process?
The best way to manage this process is to have a group check in when working on the project. Each group will have a check list to keep them on track, but the teacher will also check in with groups. By asking groups where they are at in the process and monitoring their progress the groups should not fall behind. This will also allow the teacher to know what groups might be having trouble researching or producing the final project early on.
What ethical considerations will you make to ensure sound decisions are made?
Students at this age level often do not realize the cultural differences around the world. Having discussions about possible cultural differences before beginning the project will remind students to be aware that there will be things other children do differently. Some of the differences may include: religious beliefs, family traditions, holiday traditions, language responses, and the way someone acts socially.
What processes and resources will you include?
The following are website resources that students will be able to view to learn more about other cultures around the worlds:
General Holiday Websites
World Almanac for Kids: Birthdays and Holidays (short articles on many holidays)
http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-Chapter.aspx?chapter_id=2
Kid’s Turn Central: Holidays Around the World (short definition of each holiday with links to
outside information sources for each holiday)
http://www.kidsturncentral.com/holidays/glossary/holidaysgloss.htm
Fact Monster: Festivals Around the World
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0909585.html
Academic Kids Encyclopedia: Holidays (definition of holiday and links to many holidays)
http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Holidays
National Geographic Kids Winter Celebrations article
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/peopleplaces/winter-celebrations/
National Geographic Holidays and Festivals Quiz
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/holidays-festivals-quiz/
Students Write About Holidays Around the World:
http://www.zuzu.org/daze.html
Websites for Specific Holidays
Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, Celebration of the Chinese New Year
http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/newyear/newyear.html
Chinese New Year
http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html
Jewish Holiday for Kids
http://www.akhlah.com/holidays/jewishholidays.php
Hogmanay
http://encyclopedia.kids.net.au/page/ho/Hogmanay
A Traditional Hogmanay
http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/inspirational/features/very-scottish/hogmanay
Describe the learning environment and population that will be engaged in your project:
Audience - Various grade levels taught by the learning community
Learner characteristics:
grade level, number of students - 3rd grade - 6th grade age range, 45 students; 3 7th grade classes with 30 per class
Anticipated entry-level skills of audience
Students should demonstrates appropriate ability to use the internet and its resources, ability to use email, basic keyboard skills, and knowledge the school's acceptable use policy.
School environment
The school environment will consist of Middle school level students/classes
Support for project by community, parents, or administrators -
Parents can help students with pictures or descriptions of their culture and holiday traditions. The administrators will be aware of the classroom project and work with other schools/countries. If available in the community the district media person can feature the student projects for local news.